Ali Handalhttp://alihandal.com/main
Sun, 24 Feb 2013 04:06:51 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4My Gift For You – A Loving Lullaby & The Story Behind Ithttp://alihandal.com/main/2013/02/23/gift-loving-lullaby-story/
http://alihandal.com/main/2013/02/23/gift-loving-lullaby-story/#commentsSun, 24 Feb 2013 04:06:51 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1553It’s been a little over a year since my kitty Indy passed away in my arms. I still miss him every day, but I do my best to keep the fond memories of his funny, slightly (!) obnoxious personality in the foreground of my memory.

One thing that really helps me get through hard times is songwriting, and the night that Indy died, I started writing a tender, loving lullaby to him.

Thanks to the sensitivity and expertise of my producer Seth Horan, “Last Lullaby” is now fully realized as a recording that embodies the feelings of motherly love, loss, tenderness, longing and acceptance I struggled with that night.

In the spirit of sharing this song with as many people as possible, I’m making this recording available for free.

My hope is that this song is healing and cathartic for those who need it, and beautiful for those who don’t. If the song touches you, please share it with your friends. I would be honored.

If you’d like to know more about my last evening with Indy, please read on. After reading our story, I believe you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of what the lyrics to “Last Lullaby” mean for me.

Indy’s Last Night

When Indy first came home from the vet that afternoon, I knew it would be our last night together. The doctor had been treating him with IV fluids all week, and instead of improving, Indy’s body was starting to show signs of shutting down. The vet sent him home, telling us to enjoy one last evening with our baby. We had an appointment to return the next morning at 10am to put him to sleep.

When Indy first got home, I cradled him in my arms and tried to make him as comfortable as I could. The photo I used for the song’s artwork was taken by Andrew while I was trying to comfort Indy upon his arrival home (if you look closely, you can see a little bandage on Indy’s front paw where he’d been receiving fluids from the vet all week). This photo is the last one that Indy and I took together.

As day turned into evening, Indy and I (plus Andrew and our dear friend Ilene) sat on the couch together and watched “The Big Lebowski,” which was great for a bit of much-needed light-heartedness.

But as the evening progressed, it was clear that Indy was becoming more and more uncomfortable. He continually tried to reposition his body, despite being decreasingly able to move his legs. No matter how he tried to move, he seemed uncomfortable in the true sense of the word: unable to be comforted (at least physically).

I took him upstairs to lie on my bed, and tried to arrange his head on my pillow, as he didn’t seem to have the strength to hold his head up by himself. All I could do was watch over him as his breathing became more labored and the toxins from his damaged kidneys slowly overtook his body.

Indy needed me that night, but I couldn’t cuddle and pet him as I used to — he was sensitive to light and touch and I could tell that stroking his fur was irritating, rather than soothing him. As I agonized over the right thing to do, unable to help my baby as he lay next to me in pain, I did my best to just lie next to him and be there for him as we shared our last few hours together. It was so hard not to be able to cuddle him to make both of us feel better.

In the early morning hours, I debated whether I should bring him to the emergency vet to put him down (I couldn’t stand seeing him suffer), but Andrew and I decided that it would be less jarring to Indy’s senses if we could wait it out with him in our dark bedroom until 8am, when our familiar vet’s office opened in the morning.

In order to deal with my overwhelming feelings of loss and helplessness, in the wee hours of the morning I brought a pen and paper over to the bed and began writing what would become “Last Lullaby” — the song I wish I could’ve sung to my beloved baby that night.

It turns out we didn’t have to wait until 8am, and Indy didn’t have to endure another trip to the vet. He took his last breaths in my arms around 6am that morning, and then I laid him on my bed to tearfully say my goodbyes.

I do still miss him every day, but I also feel incredibly lucky to have had such a sweet, silly, iconic & cuddly character in my life. I’m grateful to have had the time with him that I did, and to now be able to share this song with you.

Here’s a photo of the lyrics in progress a day or two after I started them, with Indy’s sister Pumpkin keeping watch:

Thanks for reading about Indy & me, and for sharing our song with your friends & family.

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2013/02/23/gift-loving-lullaby-story/feed/3Why Did Slash Give Me a Nasty T-Shirt?!http://alihandal.com/main/2012/10/11/slash-give-nasty-tshirt/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/10/11/slash-give-nasty-tshirt/#commentsThu, 11 Oct 2012 19:22:31 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1508Back in the day, I used to occasionally show up to a fantastic blues jam at a Hollywood club called the Baked Potato. It was hosted by incredible musicians — including Teddy Andreadis on keys & Alan Mirkitani AKA “B.B. Chung King” on guitar — and attracted a lot of high-profile guest players. Even though I was pretty intimidated about jamming with these guys, once I got onstage, they made me feel right at home and I had a blast every time we played.

One evening, to my surprise, Slash (post-Guns N’ Roses era) was in the club and got onstage to jam. He played several songs, and after he was done, I ran into him at the back of the club and complimented his playing (I’ve been a huge Slash fan ever since G N’ R’s first album).

Inexplicably, out of the blue, this legendary guitar hero asked me if he could trade t-shirts with me — on the spot — and, believe it or not, it didn’t *at all* come across as a come-on! I was perplexed, but excited to potentially leave the club wearing Slash’s t-shirt, so I said “yes, but I’ll need your shirt first so I can go into the bathroom and change into it when I take mine off.” He was fine with that, and proceeded to peel the shirt right off his back, handing it to me.

The first thing I noticed when I put on his shirt was that it was SOAKED with sweat (he had, after all, just come offstage). I also noticed that it was HUGE on me, but I really didn’t care. After all, I was wearing my hero’s t-shirt! I came out of the bathroom, handed him my shirt, and he put it on (fortunately, it wasn’t one of those super-tight girlie tees!).

Now, whenever I tell this story, people ask me “What did your t-shirt say to make him want it so much?” I wish I could remember. I know it wasn’t my Co-Ed Prison Sluts shirt, ‘cuz I still have that one. What I do remember is talking to my friend Johnny Griparic about the incident and learning something fascinating. Johnny — Slash’s bass player at the time — revealed to me that everywhere they went, Slash asked people to trade t-shirts with him. Apparently, Slash had a CLOSET full of other people’s t-shirts at home! (I guess that’s ONE way to avoid shopping…) For a minute, I felt a little less special (okay, a LOT less special!) than I had right after pulling Slash’s sticky sweaty shirt over my head and onto my bare skin (eww!). However, I soon got over my disappointment and got excited all over again that I now owned a shirt previously sweat-upon by Slash. Too bad I’m totally uncomfortable wearing it in public!!! (see why below)

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/10/11/slash-give-nasty-tshirt/feed/8Wearing Bette Davis’ Bloody Dresshttp://alihandal.com/main/2012/09/10/wearing-bette-davis-bloody-dress/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/09/10/wearing-bette-davis-bloody-dress/#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 22:39:12 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1463Many years ago, I took a year off from college and spent most of my time as a dance student at Debbie Reynolds studios in North Hollywood. I took advantage of some really “Hollywood” opportunities — including dancing onstage with Janet Jackson at the American Music Awards, which you can read about HERE. I also experienced the highlight of my *extremely* short modeling “career” (can you even call three jobs a career?!) when I got to participate in the Debbie Reynolds Fashion Show.

A bunch of us girls who regularly took dance classes at the studio were asked if we’d like to model dresses from Debbie’s collection of vintage movie costumes (at one point she owned over 9,000!). Although I wasn’t a vintage movie buff, I was excited to try on these dresses. At the time, even with a tiny little dancer’s body, and I remember it being REALLY difficult to squeeze myself into those dresses — wow! (Now I know why those women had such fantastic posture — they didn’t have a choice!!)

I got to wear a gorgeous dark green dress from the 1953 MGM film “Young Bess,” as well as a chartreuse two-piece period dress that Katherine Ross wore in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (apparently it was worn in the Bolivia scene where Katharine was having dinner with Paul Newman and Robert Redford).

But my favorite dress (maybe because of my fascination with crime movies & TV shows?) was the ivory chiffon three-tiered gown — stained with movie-blood — worn by Bette Davis as Charlotte when she enters the party after discovering her beau’s body in “Hush…Hush Sweet Charlotte.”

Fortunately, I snuck my camera into the dressing area and had a friend snap a few photos of me in these legendary dresses way back when. In 2011, Debbie Reynolds sold most of the dresses in her collection, including the the “Butch Cassidy” dress (which sold for $16,000) and the Bette Davis dress (which sold for $11,000).

Here’s me in the “Young Bess” dress:

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/09/10/wearing-bette-davis-bloody-dress/feed/7Giving Up My Birthday for charity:waterhttp://alihandal.com/main/2012/08/27/giving-birthday-charitywater/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/08/27/giving-birthday-charitywater/#commentsMon, 27 Aug 2012 22:12:29 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1424I’ve participated in some really fun activities this summer — one of which was the World Domination Summit – a gathering of 1,000 forward-thinking people out to change the world for the better. One of the many inspiring people I met there was Scott Harrison, the founder of charity:water.

Even though I had been vaguely aware of a water crisis, it was shocking for me to see how there are over 800 million people still struggling to get clean water every single day. These people – usually women and children – spend hours just trying to gather water for their families, often settling for dirty and disease-causing mud rather than fresh, clean water. What was so inspiring to me is learning that this is actually one of the few global problems that we DO know how to solve. In fact, it can be solved in our lifetime — we have the tools and the technology, and charity:water has already brought clean water to millions of people.

CLICK HERE to see how clean water changes everything, including improving local food supplies, gender equality, and children’s education levels.

Charity:water is not only doing great work; it’s an innovative organization that is changing the way charities approach global issues. 100% of public donations to charity:water go directly to water projects in the field, and donors have the opportunity to track the projects they’ve contributed to and to actually see the people they’re helping via GPS technology. Check out their 4-star rating on Charity Navigator.

For these reasons, I pledged to “give up” my birthday this year (admittedly not a tough proposition for a lady-entertainer in Los Angeles!).

I’m asking my friends, family & fans to donate to charity:water this September in lieu of any birthday gifts.

If you’d like to contribute to a solution to the water crisis, please JOIN ME and donate whatever you can this week. My goal is for my community to contribute $5,000 to charity:water by my birthday, September 6.

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/08/27/giving-birthday-charitywater/feed/0Coming Soon: Hal Leonard’s “Guitar For Girls” Book & CDhttp://alihandal.com/main/2012/07/17/coming-hal-leonards-guitar-girls-book-cd/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/07/17/coming-hal-leonards-guitar-girls-book-cd/#commentsWed, 18 Jul 2012 00:47:40 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1413I’d never worked on a secret project until last spring, when I was asked by Hal Leonard – the world’s largest music publisher – to write a book teaching girls how to play guitar. At the time, I was instructed not to talk about it, but now that it’s almost time for the book to be released, I’m finally allowed to talk, and I’m very excited to share this project with the world!

My book is aimed at aspiring singer-songwriters who want to learn how to play guitar by learning songs from some of the best female artists in the world – Carole King, ani difranco, Heart, Sheryl Crow, KT Tunstall, Stevie Nicks, Taylor Swift, and many, many more (including two Ali Handal songs!).

One of my favorite aspects of the book is that each section is introduced with an inspiring quote from a female musician. I also included my own words of encouragement regarding healthy practice habits, working hard to persevere at difficult tasks, and having patience with oneself throughout the learning process. Basically, I wrote the book I wish *I* had been given as a kid!

Also included with the book is a CD containing audio examples of all song excerpts, including solo acoustic performances of me singing five full songs. Throughout the book I did my best to choose songs that were not only do-able for beginner guitar players, but that also sent a positive message to young girls.

Hal Leonard is planning on releasing the book this fall, and I’m currently brainstorming all kinds of ideas to spread its teachings far and wide. Stay tuned for an opportunity to purchase a signed book directly from me, as well as attend a special book release party in Los Angeles.

Have you ever worked on a project that you weren’t allowed to tell anybody about? Inquiring minds want to know!

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/06/25/meet-ali-handal/feed/0Introducing…Shen (AKA Tater)http://alihandal.com/main/2012/05/13/introducingshen-aka-tater/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/05/13/introducingshen-aka-tater/#commentsMon, 14 May 2012 00:10:10 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1375I’m told that his given name means “Spirit,” and his disposition is very Buddha-like. However, he’s also quite the lumbering, lovable couch potato (hence the nickname).
More than anything in the world, Shen just wants to be around people — he loves to be pet, hugged, snuggled, and patted (I swear he’s more like a dog than a cat!). He and Pumpkin are still working out the kinks, but so far so good…

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/05/13/introducingshen-aka-tater/feed/0WTF?! Is There a 12-Step Program for Podcast Addiction?http://alihandal.com/main/2012/02/29/wtf-12step-program-podcast-addiction/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/02/29/wtf-12step-program-podcast-addiction/#commentsWed, 29 Feb 2012 14:55:43 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1321This month I thought I’d share one of my non-musical (and non-feline!) obsessions with you: listening to podcasts.

If you haven’t yet explored the vast world of podcasting, I highly recommend you do. Podcasts are like radio-style talk & music shows that you can download and listen to through your smartphone or your computer.

The big advantage of podcasts over traditional media sources (like terrestrial radio & TV) is that you can find incredibly UNIQUE content on virtually any subject, all for free and available for you to listen to at ANY TIME — totally on your own schedule.

My favorite time to listen to podcasts is when I have chores to do around the house (you know, like the hours I spend hand-washing cat food bowls & filing song lyrics). I also download podcasts to keep me company on tour — especially on those long stretches of Highway 5 where I can’t find a decent radio station!

People make podcasts about virtually every subject you can imagine. Some are video podcasts, though I prefer audio podcasts, as I like to multi-task while listening. Here’s a few of my favorites:

WTF with Marc Maron - I never miss an episode of WTF! Marc Maron is one of my favorite comedians, and his podcast tackles life’s most important philosophical questions (e.g., WTF?!). Marc thoughtfully interviews comedians of all stripes, celebrity guests, and the neurotic voices in his own head in a way that makes millions of listeners, including myself, feel not-so-alone in our own struggles. Warning: Explicit Content.

The Serial Killers Podcast – I know, I know — Why am I listening to this?! The same reason I love crime TV shows — because serial killers are creepily fascinating! Brian Combs explores the history, psychopathy, and psychosis of serial murderers, and while Brian is new to broadcasting, the content is always riveting.

The Moth – This podcast features people telling true, engaging, funny, and poignant stories from their lives, all in front of a live audience. I love it!

More podcasts that I enjoy (Warning: Most of these are EXPLICIT): Doug Loves Movies, Snap Judgment, This American Life, The Adam Carolla Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Freakanomics Radio, and Hollywood Babble-On with Kevin Smith & Ralph Garman (Warning: VERY explicit, tasteless humor and politically incorrect!).

Podcasts that I’ve appeared on and enjoyed: I Love A Good Story, The Music Biz Weekly Podcast with Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/02/29/wtf-12step-program-podcast-addiction/feed/2In Loving Memory of Indy the Cathttp://alihandal.com/main/2012/01/30/loving-memory-indy-cat/
http://alihandal.com/main/2012/01/30/loving-memory-indy-cat/#commentsTue, 31 Jan 2012 06:14:52 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1277It’s with a heavy heart that I let you know that Indy, my beloved kitty and constant companion for 16 years, passed away from chronic kidney disease early Friday morning.

Indy and I enjoyed 16 wonderful years together, full of laughter, singing, meowing, purring, and lots & lots of cuddling.

We spent our last evening together cuddled up on the couch, watching “The Big Lebowski” with hubby Andrew and our dear friend Ilene. Andrew and I did our best to comfort Indy throughout the night, and when it appeared that he was suffering, I picked him up and cradled him in my arms. He passed away within a few minutes, and I laid him on the bed and said my final goodbyes.

Indy’s spirit has always been larger than life, and it’s hard to believe that he’s gone. Indy’s little sister Pumpkin has been very comforting throughout our ordeal — always quick to jump on my lap for a cuddle.

Thank you for all of the kindness and words of support you’ve been sharing with me — I appreciate it so very much.

xoxo

]]>http://alihandal.com/main/2012/01/30/loving-memory-indy-cat/feed/0AC/DC: A Teenage Concert Diaryhttp://alihandal.com/main/2011/12/10/acdc-teenage-concert-diary/
http://alihandal.com/main/2011/12/10/acdc-teenage-concert-diary/#commentsSat, 10 Dec 2011 07:43:35 +0000adminhttp://alihandal.com/main/?p=1253Watch me read from my slightly embarrassing teenage concert diary about seeing AC/DC & Yngvie Malmsteen in concert in 1984 and then hear my acoustic mashup of “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll) and The Knack’s “My Sharona.” My ridiculously lovable cat Indy makes his approval known at the end of the song.